Social media friendly election campaign

Published On: May 8, 2017 05:56 PM NPT By: Smriti Dhungana  | @aesmriti


KATHMANDU, May 8: With the development in the social media, political parties have changed the way of their election campaigns. In earlier days, posters and wall paintings were used to do campaigning that used to ruin the beauty of villages and cities.

Now, social media walls are well and truly full of election campaigns. Political parties have made the social media active by changing the way of their election campaign for the local level election. Many people have the access of social media nowadays and political parties have been using social media to ask for votes. Political parties have made their election campaign active through Facebook, Twitter, Viber and other social media sites.

Last week, Nepali Congress (NC) had verified their Facebook account. NC has formed a communication department under the coordination of Minister Ramesh Lekhak. The department has made a New Media Team for the election campaigns. NC is active in its official Facebook page for the elections. Subash Adhikari is coordinating the Facebook and Twitter pages of NC with the help of four other members.

Adhikari said, “We have been posting positive posts in social media regarding NC. We have been trying to approach people through Twitter and Facebook.”

“We have also been doing live chat with NC leaders and have also made a public Viber chat active to get to people”, he added. As many as 112,000 people are following the official page of NC.

Likewise, CPN-UML has made the social media active through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Viber. UML has been carrying their election activities forwards through ‘Communist Party of Nepal’ in Facebook page, CPNUML in twitter page, website named www.cpnuml.org and CPN-UML in YouTube.

Prem Humagain, who handles the social media sites of CPN-UML said, “CPN-UML has made their election campaigns as fast as possible. We have been posting positive posts of CPN-UML for the election. We have made the songs, dramas and posters regarding election.’’

As many as 79,000 people are following the official Facebook pages of CPN-UML.

However, CPN (Maoist Center) has not had the time of making their social media active after the party unification campaign. Shiva Khakurel said, “We have not had the time to even open the social media accounts after the party unification campaign. We will make the official website, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube channel public within a week.’’

Likewise, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has been using two Facebook accounts named Central Secretariat and RPP Information Technology. Naya Shakti Party (NSP), Bibeksheel Party and Sajha Party have also made their election campaign active. NSP has as many as 122,000 followers.

Likewise, more than 12,000 people are following NSP’s official Twitter page. 456,000 people are following the official Facebook page of Bibeksheel Party. Sajha Party has been using Twitter and Facebook pages for the election campaign. Short videos of their candidates have been posted and shared in their pages. In addition, all parties are active in live video to interact with the people.


Leave A Comment